During the Easter break, Scarlett and her team at Northern RFC won the under 14 county cup. What a fantastic achievement, well done Scarlett!
Good afternoon, families of Year 9 will soon receive an email with more details of the Public Health Conference which forms the Presentation of Learning for Year 9 for their current expedition.
Please let us know if you do not receive this email this evening.
Dear Year 6 Families
We are delighted to be able to announce the calendar of transition events that we have planned to welcome your children and your family into our community at XP Gateshead.
More details on each of these events will follow in due course, but here is an overview of the activities so that you can plan ahead and discuss this with your child.
Online Family Meetings
This week we will send details of how to sign up for an online family meeting. Meetings will be in the fortnight commencing 29th April. These take place via Google Meet during the evening and are with a senior leader in the school. The meetings are a first chance for us to meet you and your child, to find out about them and discuss our expectations as a school. Your meeting will last up to 30 minutes. We will send details of how to book an appointment to you on 16th April.
Primary School Visits
We aim to visit every child in their Primary School this term. This is done by members of our transition team and means that as well as seeing your child in an educational setting, they get to know another friendly face before they come to us.
In-Person Information Evening for parents/carers
We will be holding an In-Person Information Evening at our school on 23rd May at 6pm.
It is vital that all families attend as we will give important information about the Outward Bound course that takes place for all students at the start of Year 7 as well as our iPad scheme. In addition, we will address some of the misconceptions about our school so that families are completely clear on what we are: βA mainstream school with a relentless focus on beautiful work, character growth and academic successβ, and also what we are not. There will be an opportunity for you to ask us questions too of course.
Transition Days at XP Gateshead
Your children will join us in school on Tuesday 2nd July and Wednesday 3rd July. Again more details of these days will follow in due course. Like a regular school day, students can arrive in school from 8:00am but need to be present by 8:25am. Our school day finishes at 3:15pm.
Your child will follow a typical day at XPG on both days which include some crew sessions, expedition sessions and a community meeting.
Meet your childβs Crew Leader
Following the transition days, on Tuesday 9th July we will invite parents and carers into school in the evening to meet your childβs new Crew Leader. We expect all families to attend this event. We are proud of the strong relationships that we form with families at XP Gateshead and this is an important opportunity for you to begin to build that relationship with the person that will be the key adult for your child when they start with us. As well as our cross-curricular learning expeditions, our pastoral structure Crew is what sets us apart from other schools.
We start school earlier than other schools in the local authority to allow for the Outward Bound experience. Our first day of term is Tuesday 27th August. More info on our term dates can be found by clicking here.
Information Gathering
A huge thanks to all of those families that have completed the Google Form to let us know about you and your child. Please can all families complete these forms as soon as possible.
Parent/Carer voice Google Form
We will also gather information from Primary Schools over the coming term so that we build a clear picture of your child and how we can support and challenge them to be the best version of themselves and see success.
Northern Power Grid are looking for 20 young people aged 14-19 who are passionate about the future of energy, diversity and inclusion and STEM, and who also want to get their voices heard.
Northern Powergrid is an electricity distribution business, delivering electricity to 3.9 million domestic and business customers.Β Covering an area of 25,000 square kilometres, Northern Powergrid’s network extends from north Northumberland, south to the Humber and northern Lincolnshire, and from the east coast to the Pennines.
By joining NPG’s Youth Insights panel young people will:
- gain increased networking opportunities.
- develop skills, e.g., teamwork, confidence, negotiation.
- influence the plans and strategies of a large power company.
- broaden your understanding of the energy infrastructure in the UK.
- Receive recognition of their work via references and certificates
There is a short application form on the link below where students can talk about themselves and their interests, there is also a consent form for families on the same link.
Timeline
NPG have said that the Youth Insights Panel is a significant commitment. They are hoping to host 5 sessions in 2024, with the majority of them being in the first few months after Easter.Β They will be online and after school time. Successful candidates would expected to attend a minimum of 3 sessions.
April 2024: Applications open – Click here to apply
May 2024: Group interviews and places allocated
G29 have started immersion for their new expedition this term. In human they explored the poem Home by Warsan Shire and were challenged to describe what home means to them.
I have combined their “What home means to me” sentences into a word cloud of the keywords that came up again and again from our students that I wanted to share with you.
During the Easter break Emily and Macie took advantage of the opportunity to take part in the Health and Care Youth Academy, working alongside health professionals such as paramedics and nurses. This is a great way to learn more about careers and to get the edge when it comes time to apply for next stages in employment and training.
Well done girls!
During our G30 Presentation of Learning, students had to show lots of discipline backstage whilst waiting for their moment to shine on the stage. Savannah chose to work on some digital art – and created this beautiful rose. Great work Savannah.
Dear Families
Welcome back, we hope you have enjoyed your Easter break.Β We are looking forward to welcoming our students back tomorrow for the start of a new term at XP Gateshead.
Feedback from G29/G30 familiesΒ
We would like to gather feedback from G29 and G30 families following last termβs PoLs so would appreciate your time in completing the following questionnaires which include some school wide questions too:
If you are a G29/30 parent or carer please click here to complete the short form which should take no more than 5 minutes.
Our usual reminders for a good start backβ¦
Punctuality
School opens at 8:00am every morning. Students should arrive between 8:00am and 8:25 am and there are spaces available for socialising, reading or completing extended study. Students must be on site for 8.25am for the call to Crew. A calm start to the day is really important for students to settle into learning so we ask that parents support their child with this.
Dress codeΒ
Please refer to our website post for full details on our dress code. Can I remind parents of the following expectations around daily dress within school and ask for your full support around this as we move in to a new term. In simple terms we ask students to dress appropriately and modestly. We have highlighted some of the areas where students have been challenged more frequently last term around what is not appropriate/modest for school.
For a normal day within school, we do not think it appropriate that students wear:
- Hats, hoods & coats inside school
- Revealing clothing, i.e. revealing the midriff, chest or upper thigh
- Noticeable make-up, including false eyelashes
- Valuable, sentimental or impractical accessories / jewellery
-
- For example heavy chains, thick sovereign rings, or false nails
- Impractical footwear:
-
- For example sliders, flip-flops or high heels.
Daily kit list
As always, all students need to be fully equipped for school and bring a school bag with the below. Generally students do well in this regard and we can support if you are having problems sourcing these at home. iPad charge is the most frequent issue we deal with each morning. Whilst iPads are not needed for every session, they are needed daily, and without charge, this means that students are at a disadvantage.
- A filled water bottle
- Pencil case including: pens, pencils, ruler, eraser and pencil sharpener
- A fully charged iPad
- Their AR reading book (please remember that as part of our reading strategy, we expect all students to read between 20-30 mins. each day)
- HeadphonesΒ
- A healthy snack for break (no confectionery (sweets), fizzy drinks or energy drinks, nut products)
- A notebook
This week
New Term β New Expeditions for G29 and G30
A new term means new and exciting expeditions for our Y7 and Y8 students. Immersion will take place this week and our students will be working hard to find out what their new guiding questions are and the challenges and new learning their expeditions will bring.
G28 Expedition βYou Give Me FeverβΒ
G28βs bumper 16-week long new expedition with the guiding question: βHow can we continue to make progress on public health?β continues this term. Our students continue to look at public health over time and investigate health inequalities in Gateshead today, looking at the correlation between disease and deprivation.Β We will update you with the rescheduled date for Geography fieldwork soon.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: G28βs Presentation of Learning will be a βCost of Living Conferenceβ which is scheduled to be held in school on Friday 10th May, 2pm – 4pm.
This will be another step up for our students, hosting a conference , delivering keynote speeches with an audience including families and more. We appreciate this is an earlier than normal start, however this has been carefully considered and will allow us to make use of professionals as part of the process and end the week and expedition with a bang!
The theme for the conference relating to public health is βHealthy Food for All?β. Students will be working with and putting forward a case for change to local experts and politicians.Β More details to follow.
PE sessions this week
Our PE sessions this week are as follows. Please ensure that your child has theirΒ full PE kit.
- G30 students (Y7) have PE on Monday this week
- G29 students (Y8) have PE on Wednesday this week.
- For G28 students (Y9)Β
- G28 Class 1 have PE on Thursday this week
- G28 Class 2 have PE on Friday this week.
Extended Study and Clubs
As is usually the case at the start of a new term there will be no extended study or after school clubs running this week. After school sessions will all start again next week.
If you have any questions please contact your childβs crew leader in the first instance.Β
Thank you as always for your ongoing support.
Julie Mosley
Β Β 
Happy Vaisakhiβ to our Sikh friends at Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha and Rav Singh from Little History of the Sikhs.
Eid Mubarak!
Eid Mubarak to our Muslim students, families and friends of XPG.